Adapting to a new kitchen & @staffscakeclub

We've moved house, which is great - because the house we've brought (like proper grown ups) has got a massive kitchen - in a slightly odd configuration - but it's huge, with exciting things like plugs, and worktop space, and space for a table. The old owners even left a massive bookcase perfect for the cookbooks

We've been in the new house a couple of months, but that have also been mentally buys months so I haven't really done much cooking, let alone big scale baking. I did make a grape jelly the other day, but that was more because I was annoyed we weren't eating the grapes in the fridge and I was in a waste-not want-not kind of mood. It's also handy having Charlotte up the street who could lend me a straining bag, even if we had to google picture to work out to the assemble it (also, only 1 out of 3 supermarkets in Stafford had pectin! I had to send Pete to Tesco on his way home.)

Anyway, a weekend without major things to do resulted in some serious baking:

in my head, when I bake I like to think I'm on a tv program and make sure I have all the ingredient out in front of me.

a couple of methodical hours later:

Ta-da - apple pie cake from The Boy Who Bakes

There's another reason for making a massive cake - I actually hardly ever make one, usually because 2 people can't easily eat a whole cake made for 12-16 people without being very ill. Luckily Jess was coming around for coffee, she's taken some for Neil and I'm sure my office mate Chris will eat some tomorrow....

Which bring me onto exciting news, I'm clearly not alone in this this, little cakes are lovely, but massive wodge slices of cake are much more fun - which is why Charlotte & I have joined The Clandestine Cake Club and we're hosting our first event in Stafford on the 9th of May.

The Fish Graveyard

I suppose I should update you on the fish - we've currently got 3 Isambard*, Nietzsche , Vince - they seem fine. The extreme cold did a few in and they probably need some proper TLC. Anyway - Pete and I were trying to recall other fish we'd had over the years so I started scanning the blog for fish related posts and I came across the fish graveyard from an old bit of my website that still floating around the tubes of the internet... So here it is - in memory of of the valiant pets of old. And for the ones that don't have little grave markers (or dates) Darnell Bertrand Pushkin Heisenburg I should possibly make a marker for the tomb of the unknown goldfish because I'm sure we've forgotten one... .. time for some more fish? Any ideas for names?? *We were slightly uncertain for a while if it was Heisenburg or Isambard that had survived

Tofu Recipe Round Up

More for my own benefit then anything else I'm going to round up my favourite go-to weeknight tofu recipes. This is different from my pinterest board which is full of things I haven't necessarily tried yet but look yummy. Vegan Tofu Taco Crumbles Vietnamese Fried Tofu w/ Tomato Sauce – Dau Sot Ca Chua (I airfry the tofu for this one) I also like to slather it in BBQ sauce and bake it for about 40 mins with peppers and onions before adding it to wraps with some salad. I've also found it's a great substitute for paneer in things - it's not quite there but it's close oh, and if I do need to press it, and I haven't got time (which is almost always) I used the microwave method from this chirpy little video

The Pretty, The Easy and the things on Sticks #2

I've spoken before about Pinterest, and how pretty everything is on there, but there's another side, a very definite, and I can only guess american trend - the easy fix. Easy cheats, how to make things without the effort, how to cheat, how to make restaurant specials at home, so you end up with a massive jug of frappachino mix or a dressing not too dissimilar from the amazing blue cheese dressing at Pizza Hut (this is our holy grail - we've gone to PH just to eat the Blue Cheese dressing) and it shows an interesting side of people, and if you look at the ingredients they use, and most of these tips and tricks would be impossible to remake outside of the states. Source: therebelchick.com via Rebecca E. on Pinterest This isn't a new thing - Top Secret Recipes was one of the first websites I remember checking back and linking too - even if I was looking at recipes I had no idea what the original tasted like, but it's impressive so much effort is given over to ma...

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